Why your hunting knife is harder than your gun

Have you ever read about the hardness of the steel in your gun and wondered why your hunting knife and your pocket knife are harder than your gun? Your pocket knife can easily mar your gun's finish.

Consider your hunting knife or your pocket knife. It has to be hard to hold an edge. But doesn't a gun have important edges such as the edges of the rifling? Isn't it desirable for the rifling edges to stay sharp? Yes it is, but other characteristics of your gun are more important.

Guns are subjected to sudden, brief, yet severe forces during firing. Firing is a type of cyclic loading. One moment there is no load on your gun and less than one thousandth of a second later it has tens of thousands of pounds of force per square inch pushing from within. All metals have cracks and other flaws within; perfection belonging to God. Each of these firing cycles can open cracks a little wider. Your gun's ability to withstand repeated firings without breakage is a measure of its fracture toughness. If your gun were as hard as your knife, it would one day shatter like porcelain.

That's why your hunting knife is harder than your gun.